Darling Buds of May: The Pop Larkin Chronicles (The Pop Larkin Chronicles #1-3) by H. E. Bates

This was a collection of the first three novellas from a lighthearted English series. The first book Darling Buds of May was a buddy read. In general, this was a fun easy read since it’s basically a country sitcom. There was some very nice bucolic writing about the English countryside and British food especially in the first novella. The Larkins are common law and their marriage is quite open which seemed progressive and ahead of its time. They seem to be good people overall. I did think it was a bit repetitive after the first novella and there we were some aspects of the books which did not age well. In the third novella When the Green Woods Laugh, Pop Larkin is accused of assaulting a woman and gets away with it in the court case by making the two female witnesses out to be liars. Overall, I would recommend the first novella if you’re interested in English midcentury comedy.

We watched all three series of the TV show and it was well cast. It was cozy, wholesome, and funny. It was filmed on location and captured the pastoral feeling of the books. Catherine Zeta Jones was ridiculously beautiful. I did find the episodes which were not based on the books contrived. It honestly made me appreciate the lighthearted adventures from the novellas more. I may even go back to finish reading the series.

May 1-11, 2026 started on Kobo Clara BW.

Cannon by Lee Lai

A well written graphic novel about two queer Anglophone Chinese Canadian women in Montreal. Lai was able to build characterization very quickly. I did relate to it as well including the anxiety and the family expectations. A good read for a weekday.

May 12, 2026.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie with Richard Armitage (Narrator)

Reread. I read the novel in 2015 and even before then, I had listened to an adapted BBC radio play. It was my husband’s first time with it. I have liked Richard Armitage since North & South and he did a good job here especially since he was able to do English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh accents through the book to differentiate the characters. I appreciated the clues and the many chilling aspects of the murderer while going through it again.

May 5-15, 2026.

Poirot Investigates: A Hercule Poirot Collection by Agatha Christie with David Suchet (Narrator)

We only listened to two or three of these stories since the rest had been covered in the other collections. My Storygraph will have a lot of bloated audio numbers but I think we are done with the short story anthologies for now.

May 3-6, 2026.

Annie Bot by Sierra Greer

I started this while waiting for a physio appointment. I was very gripped by it. What an excellent novel. I enjoyed the exploration of what it means to be human and learning about one’s self in a abusive relationship. Whenever I read a robot / android book, I think I should read more of them because I find them relatable and moving. This one was more gripping and dark. It was a metaphor for domestic abuse. I was frustrated in the last half, but the ending made up for it. My favourite scene in the book is when the two female robots run away together. That was fun. I need to read more robot books.

May 4-7, 2026 on Kobo Clara BW and Kobo Libra 2.

Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life by Alex Mayyasi, Hosts of NPR’s Planet Money with Alex Goldmark (Contributor), Alex Mayyasi (Narrator), Hosts of NPR’s Planet Money (Narrator)

I listened to this from Libby since I was early to put it on hold due to listening to being a long time listener of the podcast. I think it would have been more interesting to read it alongside the print book which I am still waiting from library. The content of the book was a compendium of many Planet Money episodes that I had listened to over ten years. I did not learn anything new. It would be more interesting for economic newbies.

May 4-10, 2026.

Joyride by Susan Orlean (Narrator)

I have been going through a lot of Orlean’s books the last few years. The Library Book was great and I liked a lot of the articles in On Animals. I really like her style of literary journalism. This was a long memoir around 14 hours and chronicled her writing and creative life. I found it fascinating. She became a writer out of college starting off at small newspapers and magazines and finding her way to her dream job at the New Yorker. I wonder how attainable that would be now since so much of nonfiction writing is now online. I found value in listening to her discuss her writing process and lessons particularly the idea of “Report. Think. Write.” First reporting and researching, then reflecting on it before even starting to write. Writing itself is usually not the issue as much as the first two steps. I hope she continues to write more essays and interesting articles which I can keep reading and listening to for many more years.

April 19-May 1, 2026.

The Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie with Hugh Fraser (Narrator)

The second Poirot novel. I liked this one more than The Mysterious Affair at Styles. It was set in France which set it apart from most of the other Christie stories. Poirot had a French rival named Monsieur Giraud who was competent enough but not to Poirot’s level. The rivalry made Poirot annoyed and added another dimension to the case. Hastings acted like a lovesick fool. At least his love interest was interesting. Onwards to the next Poriot.

April 27-May 2, 2026.

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 1 by Beth Brower

This lighthearted Victorian epistolary novella series had high ratings. It seemed up my alley. It was funny with a plucky heroine. I liked the tone and the main character but Emma had financial problems because of annoying family members and misogynistic laws. I realized that financial stress was a trigger for me especially when the protagonist has little power against them. It was not dark but I did find it irritating for most of the book until things ended on a more hopeful tone. I’ll likely continue.

April 26-30, 2026 on Kobo Libra 2.

Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell with Ann Marie Gideon (Narrator)

I had fun with Wordslut that I quickly listened to the next Montell book. For some reason, she did not narrate this one. The narrator did a good job though. While some bits of the book were interesting including the section about fitness, the actual cults did not have a lot of new to me info. I still like Montell’s writing and will listen to her latest book this year as well.

April 13-18, 2026.

Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories by Agatha Christie with Juliet Stevenson (Narrator)

We had listened to a few of these already in the other anthology collections. It was still good because I really like Miss Marple and I adore Juliet Stevenson’s narration. I thought most of the stories were well done and generally more consistent than the Poirot short stories.

April 8-18, 2026.

Evenings & Weekends by Oisín McKenna

Another Irish literary novel. I am hoping to read about five this year as opposed to the dozen last year. This one was very similar to Greta & Valdin and had a similar style to Sally Rooney but with quotation marks. It was set in modern London and most of the events of the book happen over the course of one day. The setting did a lot of the work for me since I lived in the same part of London as one of the main characters. I regularly visited the same big Tesco. London was one of the characters and the author was able to describe the tired and scummy yet alive feeling of London in summer. There were themes of repression, miscommunication, stress, and past trauma. There were too many characters and perspectives and it could have been tighter around the main core characters. It was a nice debut.

April 15-19, 2026.

Grandma’s House by Alice Melvin with Alice Melvin (Illustrator)

This was a lovely children’s book which used cutouts in the illustrations. Very cozy and I would have loved this kind of book as a kid as well. As I learned English through ESL, I had less time with children’s books so I am discovering a lot of them now.

April 19, 2026.

Crumble by Meredith McClaren with Andrea Bell (Illustrator)

This was in my library pile for awhile. I kept putting it off because the art style looked too bright and juvenile. I was not sure if I would like the visuals. I grew to like it with the good writing. It felt like a cozy video game. It had baking, grief, family, and friendship. Very well done middle grade graphic novel.

April 19, 2026.

Country Christie: Twelve Devonshire mysteries by Agatha Christie with David Suchet (Narrator), Christopher Lee (Narrator), Hugh Fraser (Narrator), Isla Blair (Narrator), Judith Boyd (Narrator), Juliet Stevenson (Narrator)

We are moving through the Christie short story collections very quickly. There was no repeat from the previous batch but I did find one Poirot story had a similar plot to The Blue Train. I liked Tommy and Tuppence a bit more even though their story had a really silly ending related to twins. There was another Poirot where we did not quite grasp the structure. There was a really chilling and dark one called “The Edge” which was excellent.

April 2-7, 2026.

Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? by Julie Smith with Julie Smith (Narrator)

A psychology based self-help book by a British psychologist. This was like a crash course on modern therapy techniques. It felt like a session that I had with my psychologist a couple years ago when I needed to work on my anxiety. There were also sections about depression and grief. I liked listening to it because I already used a lot of these techniques including the meditation and gratitude journalling. In that way, I did not learn many new things. It was a good reminder of the practices which have helped me in the last few years.

April 8-11, 2026.

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

Not enough of Marian Halcombe. She was awesome. I love classics. I really like mysteries. I am not big on thrillers. This one had more suspense and thriller vibes after the first 20%. It was Victorian paced so it was slower but the plot and the characters moved so things did not feel wasted. As a modern reader, a lot of the twists were predicable. Count Fosco was a fun villain too so having two memorable characters made this book enjoyable. Very good writing. Looking forward to reading The Moonstone in the future since I liked Collins’s character and story telling.

April 5-14, 2026.

Capital Christie: Agatha Christie’s London Mysteries by Agatha Christie with Judith Boyd (Narrator), Christopher Lee (Narrator), Hugh Fraser (Narrator), David Suchet (Narrator), Juliet Stevenson (Narrator), Ciaran Saward (Narrator)

We are back to listening to the Agatha Christie short story collections. One of the Christopher Lee ones was in a previous collection so I remembered the ending. Whenever I listen to these Christie collection, I notice her repeated plot points. I also notice one of the Poirot stories had a really hard to grasp motive. There was also one a sentimental story “The Lonely God” about two lovers which we found quite nice.

March 25-April 1st, 2026.

Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language by Amanda Montell with Amanda Montell (Narrator)

Been wanting to try Amanda Montell’s nonfiction for awhile. This one focused on words, language, and feminism. It was interesting. I enjoyed Montell’s style of writing and learning so many random language facts especially when done from an intersectional perspective.

Since I am walking less these days, it means less audiobook time. I listened to the second half of this while doing chores and knitting. I am in a knitting slump so I may need to listen to knit more while listening to audiobooks at home.

April 3-5, 2026.

The No-Pressure Book Journal by Brea Grant and Mallory O’Meara

Supporting my favourite book podcast. There was less than hundred pages of text content and the rest was journal and prompts. I am going to use this book to track for high five star reads and to track my wheelhouse. I have noticed my reading doorway has veered towards Language a lot more in the last year. As I grow and change through time, so do my reading preferences and this journal will reflect some of those changes for the next couple years at least.

April 3-5, 2026.

The Art of Spending Money: Simple Choices for a Richer Life by Morgan Housel

DNF after 28 pages. I thought this was a personal finance book but it was more of a self-help finance book. I flipped through it and read some reviews. It seemed to have a lot of common sense tips which would be good for younger people but not for me.

April 6, 2026.

Bud Finds Her Gift by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Cute and lovely children’s book about a girl who finds purpose noticing the things around her especially in the natural world. There is an actual poop song relating to the circle of life. That made me laugh. Sweet.

March 31, 2026.

Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People by Imani Perry with Imani Perry (Narrator)

I listened to this for a black history month challenge. It was an African-American history book through the colour of blue. It was an intersecting intersection of history, art, and race. The narration was great. I just found it hard to get into and it was not my kind of history book. I appreciated its originality.

March 25-30, 2026.

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

I knew going into to this novel that it was one of the less popular works of Ishiguro. I loved The Remains of the Day and really likede Never Let Me Go. Ishiguro is such a talented writer. That was displayed in this strange mythological retelling of Britain after the Romans and King Arthur. Aside from the writing, I liked the main older couple Axl and Beatrice. Their ending was beautifully written and the novel had themes about collective memory, love, and death. It was a moving and sad ending. I would have preferred the whole book about this couple since I did not really care for the other characters. I actually was impatient when reading about the boy Edwin but I can see how his chapters were to showcase a young person’s perspective and to feature on the other pivotal character Wistan. Still, this novel’s slow pace and long chapters dragged. I read most of the book in one day propelled mostly by the great prose and the deadline for a challenge. I still like Ishiguro because all three of the books have different premises yet interesting and heartbreaking character writing.

March 27-31, 2026.

New Girl by Cassandra Calin

I read a compilation of the author’s comics and enjoyed them. I found this middle grade graphic memoir loosely based on her life immigrating to Montreal. This was easy going and enjoyable for an hour read.

March 24, 2026.

Much Ado about Nothing by William Shakespeare

I am having a great time reading Shakespeare again and listening a production in tandem. For this one, I listened to the 1998 Arckangel audio drama with Saskia Reeves as Beatric and Samuel West as Benedict. After finishing, I found two productions with David Tennant including one with Catherine Tate opposite as Beatrice. I’ll have to listen to those later. I really enjoyed this play because Beatrice was awesome. She was clearly the the wittiest and quickest character in whole play. I did not buy the romance at the start, but it somehow won me over when Benedict started falling for her. Maybe because I was a Beatrice fan by then too. The other hijinks were fine albeit depressing that a woman can be slandered so easily. All of this added to good background to the lively banter and relationship between B&B. This was fun and probably became my second favourite Shakesperean comedy after Twelfth Night. This is the last of my standalone Shakespeare books. From now on, I should be reading Shakespeare from an omnibus edition that I have been meaning to unwrap for 15 years.

March 22-24, 2026.

Sweep by Louise Greig with Júlia Sardà

A picture book about a little boy who sweeps on a dramatic scale to deal with things during his bad mood. It was fine. I picked it up because I really like Sarda’s illustrations and they were nice as usual. Not enough of the art compared to the others.

March 27, 2026.